Thermogravimetric analysis and modeling of pyrolysis of macroscopic wood particles

Abstract: The knowledge of kinetics of pyrolysis is important. It is also challenging to find parameters for kinetic which can be applied at different sizes of biomass. Many researchers have been investigating the pyrolysis behavior of wood powders due to heat and mass transfer limitations. They have also been focusing on determining the effects of feedstock characterization, residence time, gas environment, heating rate and the final temperature as well as the arrangement of the pyrolysis reactor and modeling of the kinetics. This project presents a qualitative understanding of the pyrolysis process based on data from slow heating rates. Samples of spruce chips at different masses, namely 4 mg, 200 mg, 500 mg and 800 mg and also 4 mg powder have been used in experiments with thermogravimetric analysis to understand the mass loss behavior. Furthermore, kinetic parameters for biomass are taken from literature and have been used in modeling to understand to which extent these parameters are different for different particle sizes. The kinetic model that is chosen to investigate in this project is where each component of biomass shows different characteristics during the thermal decomposition. The experimental results on wood chips at different sample masses show same behavior for all of them and there is no heat and mass transfer limitations. The results from experiments on powders shows different behavior than for chips at the end of the mass loss curve only. This means less char is produced for powders than it is for the chips. The results from modeling show that kinetic parameters such as activation energy and the prefactor are the same for both powders and chips. The only parameter that is different is the pre-determined char yield for hemicellulose second reaction. The kinetic model and the kinetic parameters used in this report are in good agreement to the experimental results. The model used, where each component show different behavior during its thermal decomposition and the final products are volatiles and char is a reliable model to describe the mass loss behavior of biomass. The difference in the experimental results between powders and chips can be explained by the modeling. It can be stated that the difference is in the char yield from thermal decomposition of hemicellulose.